Jan 24
Code snippets from my WordCamp presentation
Here are some code snippets from my WordCamp Whistler presentation. This article will be expanded in the coming week but in the meantime here they are for anyone wanting to play around with them:
Custom Page Templates in 5 lines of code
<?php /* Template Name: Whatever */ ?>
Custom Fields in one line of code
<?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, '$key', true); ?>Custom Field that parses PHP code
<?php $boxContent = get_post_meta($post->ID, 'centerBox', true); ?> <?php eval('?'.'>'.$boxContent); ?>
Jan 12
Speaking about WordPress as CMS at WordCamp Whistler – What do you want me to cover?
I am speaking at WordCamp Whistler on January 24th on the topic of using WordPress to create, design and manage “non-blog” web sites – in other words using WordPress as a CMS. If you follow this blog you know that I’ve been working with this concept for a long time and that in almost every case I use WordPress as a base for my client sites. There are many reasons for this, foremost that from a client perspective it is more user friendly than any of the other open-source CMSes out there. Add to that the almost infinite extensibility through plug-ins and other hacks and how easy it is to create custom themes and layouts and you have what in my view is the best backend solution for small and medium scale web projects.
In my original pitch I asked for a one hour session. But unbeknownst to me Tris Hussey (who is looking for your input on favourite plug-ins etc), another WordPress as CMS expert, had pitched almost the exact same topic to the event. Rather than pick sides and give one of us the full hour, it was decided that we would each get a 30 minute session so we both get our foot in and the attendees can get two different perspectives. Which is a great idea: This is by no means an exact science and while I’m sure Tris and my approaches compliment each other they will be vastly different. And that “double perspective” will give the listeners a far broader understanding of the subject matter than if one of us were to do the session by ourselves.
So what should I talk about?
With the reduced time comes the inevitable question: What should I talk about? Those who know me know that I will take up whatever time I am given and I’ll always have plenty more to say. In the case of WordPress as CMS I could probably hold a week long seminar and still only cover the basics of what you can do. In my original pitch I outlined a series of topics that form the foundation of this technique. These include basic WordPress anatomy, theme and CSS hacks, taxonomy, custom templates, custom themes and a discussion of why WordPress is the ideal platform for “regular” web sites.
I could talk at length on all of these topics but I think the attendees would be better served with a broader approach that covers the basics of several of them for further study later on.
What do you want to learn?
Rather than set my talk in stone right now, I’d like to hear from the people who are actually going to the event and let them shape the session. So what do you want me to talk about? What do you think you would have the most use of? WordPress anatomy? Custom fields as layout tools? Theme hacks? Taxonomy? The choice is yours. Here is a preliminary break down of the session and then I’ll let you, the listener, decide the final result:
Working Title: WordPress as CMS – Building the Non-Blog WordPress Site of the Future
Suggested topics covered:
WordPress Anatomy
What does WordPress really do? How does the stuff you create in the back-end end up on the pages and posts? What is the difference between posts, pages, indexes and all the other options? And how are these things connected?
The Basic Hack: Custom Templates
Want more control of the appearance of your pages? Custom templates give you complete control with minimum effort. Learn some basic theme hacks and understand the template structure.
Custom Fields Can Be Used for Anything!
One of the most powerfull and underused functions in WordPress is the Custom Fields. By understanding how they work you can use them as a layout tool to create menus, boxes and other elements that will make your site stand out.
Make the WordPress Taxonomy Work for You
The WordPress taxonomy (hierarchial structure, i.e. categories, sub categories etc) was built for blogging. But if you reframe your thinking of what blogging really is you’ll see that the same taxonomy combined with page parenting gives you a solid base for non-blog taxonomy and dynamic page creation.
That’s what I have. Now it’s up to you! Drop your thoughts in the comments below and together we’ll create a session customized to the people who are there to learn.
Dec 19
WordCamp Whistler Pitch: Moving Beyond the Blog – Building Web Sites with WordPress as the CMS
WordCamp is coming to the wonderful winter wonderland of Whistler on January 24th, 2009 and I’d like to throw my name in the hat of presenters and share some of what I’ve learned working with everyone’s favourite blogging platform WordPress as a full fledged CMS. Now I’m not part of what is considered the Vancouver blogging community and most of these people don’t know who I am or what I do so I figure instead of just sending the pitch off to the great unknown I’ll share it with the good readers of this blog for comments, questions and suggestions.
Session title: Moving Beyond the Blog – Building Web Sites with WordPress as the CMS
Alternate title: This is not a blog! Harnessing the Power of WordPress for Non-blog Websites
Alternate alternate title: Letting the Genie Out of the Bottle: WordPress is More than Reverse Chronological Posts
Session length: 30 minutes to 1 hour (1 hour preferred)
The Pitch:
It is well established that WordPress is a great blogging platform. But the capabilities of the application go way beyond merely outputting posts or articles in a reversed chronological order: WordPress is in fact a full fledged Content Management System (CMS) that beyond blogging can serve as the basis for pretty much any type of web site imaginable.
By understanding the anatomy of WordPress and how the different pieces go together and interact with each other you can create some truely spectacular sites that look nothing like the classic two-column blogs but still retain all the functionality, ease of use and SEO power that makes the application so popular.
The session will start off with a crash course in WordPress anatomy and how to quickly move beyond the standard templates through some simple theme hacks and CSS. Using the WordPress based sites for Sablok & Sablok and Bellevue Gallery (work in progress) as examples I will demonstrate how to use pages, posts and categories to create strong and functional taxonomies that make for easy navigation as well as management. The session will go on to cover how to use custom templates, conditional custom fields and template tags to create pretty much any layout you can imagine. And to wrap it all up; a brief discussion of why using WordPress as a CMS for “regular” web sites gives the site owner and end user a huge advantage over regular sites and how businesses can increase their web presence and findability by adding a news page or blog to their site and share some of their know-how with the public – for free.
So who is this Morten dude anyway?
I’ve been designing web sites for close to 10 years now but over the last two years WordPress has become the most imporatnt tool in my web design arsenal. In fact it is now the foundation upon which 80% of my business is built. I’ve learnt most of what I know about the application by reading and listening to the thoughts of others and experimenting with the code and now it’s time I give some of that aquired knowledge back. My blog Design is Philosophy features a series of tutorials and articles on how to customize WordPress to make it do what you want and I’m in the process of developing a free “God Theme” for WordPress that will give the user access to pretty much everything they need to create web sites using WordPress as the CMS.
Nov 05
Introducing Design is Philosophy
After finishing a series of projects long overdue I finally had a couple of days to sit down and redesign my much neglected blog. Over the summer I’ve jotted down ideas and sketches for this blog but I’ve never really had time to get down to work. At the same time I’ve been telling everyone and their dog about how well Expression Web works as a blog design tool and how well WordPress works as a CMS. So I figured it was about time I put everything together to demonstrate that there is reality behind all the talk. And after 3 days of hard work, here is the result: A WordPress blog designed from scratch in Expression Design and Expression Web 2. Get the whole story
